A Techno-Ecological Transformative Approach of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill in Upper-Middle-Income Countries Based on Energy Recovery

Kaouther Kerboua (), Hamza Cheniti, Clyde Falzon Bouvett, Intissar Gasmi, Hani Amir Aouissi, Alexandru-Ionut Petrisor () and Maria Boştenaru-Dan
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Kaouther Kerboua: Department of Process Engineering, National Higher School of Technology and Engineering, Annaba 23005, Algeria
Hamza Cheniti: Environmental Research Center (CRE), Annaba 23000, Algeria
Clyde Falzon Bouvett: MCAST—The Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology, 9032 Paola, Malta
Intissar Gasmi: Environmental Research Center (CRE), Annaba 23000, Algeria
Hani Amir Aouissi: Environmental Research Center (CRE), Annaba 23000, Algeria
Alexandru-Ionut Petrisor: Doctoral School of Urban Planning, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, Academiei 18-20, 010014 Bucharest, Romania
Maria Boştenaru-Dan: Department for the Management of Research, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, 010014 Bucharest, Romania
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Maria Bostenaru Dan

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-29

Abstract: This paper presents several transformative scenarios of municipal solid waste landfilling sites from technical and ecological points of view, applicable to upper-middle-income countries, as per the classification of the World Bank. Our approach is based on numerical simulations of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2012 and 2025 and numerical simulations of methane emissions in a selected landfilling site, Oued Smar, in Algiers (Algerian capital city), according to the LandGem and IPCC models. Business-as-usual, landfill gas flaring, and electricity generation scenarios are considered in the numerical simulations. Finally, a novel metric dividing the recoverable electrical power by the amount of avoided greenhouse gas emissions is suggested. This paper reveals that the LandGem results were closer to reality and exhibited slightly higher values of energy recovery. A novel “techno-ecological” metric, computed as the ratio of energy recovery to avoided amounts of GHG emissions, was suggested for controlling landfill transformation. Accordingly, transitioning from uncontrolled landfilling to energy recovery could reduce GHG emissions by up to 99.87%, with a generated power of 0.89 W per ton of CO 2 -eq avoided by 2025.

Keywords: municipal solid waste; landfill; methanation; energy; greenhouse gas; thermodynamic cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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